Kyle Dixon
by LemonStar
Summary: ..Daryl/Beth.. From the "House Call" series. One-shot. Hunter listens to his parents – but just barely. For the most part, the kid does whatever the hell he wants. There's a freedom to the way that Hunter lives his life that Kyle understands and gravitates towards.


…

He never knows when it's going to happen. Some nights, he's able to jump up onto their bed and curl up at the foot of it, spending the night at their feet. But other nights, Daryl will pick him up and carry him out the door, placing him down in the hallway. Kyle will sit there, staring up at him with his yellow eyes and a lazy swish of his tail, wondering what the hell is going on even though this happens a few times a week and he waits for Daryl to explain himself.

Daryl doesn't say anything though. He just steps back into the bedroom and closes the door and Kyle is thusly kicked out of the room for the night. Kyle sits there for another moment before turning and with a high head, he crosses the hall silently to the bedroom across from theirs – a little girl's bedroom with stuffed animals and dollhouse furniture sprinkled across the floor.

Abby sleeps in a twin bed every night with a teddy bear her parents gave her for her birthday and there's always plenty of room for Kyle up on the bed, too. He jumps up and curls him into a ball against her stomach and Abby smiles, petting his back for a moment before they both go to sleep. If he can't sleep with Daryl and Beth, he always sleeps with Abby. Luke kicks in his sleep and Hunter has rolled over on him more than once. Abby is the safest. The little girl hardly moves at all as she sleeps.

The Dixons are a family of early risers with Daryl usually being the first one. The instant Kyle hears the floorboards creak from the bedroom across the hall, his ears perk up and he lifts his head, listening for more. Sometimes, there's the sound of the shower turning on but sometimes, after a few more creaks, the bedroom door opens and Kyle immediately jumps down from the bed, stretching himself out.

As he comes out of Abby's bedroom, Luke is usually shuffling out of his room, already dressed and yawning as he scratches his head. Daryl is heading down the stairs and Kyle follows after him as Luke goes into the bathroom and shuts the door.

Down the kitchen and around the newel post at the bottom, down the hallway into the kitchen, Daryl unlocks the back door and pushes the back screen door open and Kyle immediately darts outside. He has a litter box, yes, in the laundry room off the kitchen that the kids take turns cleaning out but if he has the choice, he prefers outside. There's something about squatting in a small room in a small box that Kyle has never been a fan of. He is just like his owners. He likes being outside – smelling the fresh air and chasing after mice and frogs through the field and staying away for hours, returning only when it's mealtime. Outside is where he belongs.

The air is brisk that morning as the sky begins turning the faintest orange and the dew of the grass is cold beneath his paws as he takes care of his business. The birds have begun chirping their morning songs, too high up in the branches of the trees for Kyle to get to them.

He remembers that Abby had asked for a bird for her fourth birthday but Beth had explained to her that if she and daddy got her a bird, Kyle would more than likely do his best to kill it. Kyle hadn't found a lie with that statement. Abby had been confused and maybe even a little upset by it but Kyle knows she loves him and she makes the right choice in wanting Kyle more than some dumb bird.

The screen door opens and Hunter hurries out, stopping himself on the edge of the back deck. "Kyle!" He shouts out into the early morning. "Breakfast!"

Kyle comes out from behind the bush he had been trailing the scent of something and begins making his way across the grass back towards the house. Hunter is eight and even though Kyle doesn't like sharing a bed with him, he loves the kid. Hunter's just fun. A little crazy and wild and Daryl's always muttering about the kid giving him grey hairs. Hunter listens to his parents – but just barely. For the most part, the kid does whatever the hell he wants. There's a freedom to the way that Hunter lives his life that Kyle understands and gravitates towards.

"Catch anything this morning, Kyle?" Hunter asks as if Kyle can respond and he grins, bending down and patting Kyle quickly on the back.

Inside the kitchen, the rest of the family is now awake. Beth is at the counter, pouring three glasses of milk and Daryl is at the stove, scrambling eggs. Abby is at the kitchen table, coloring a picture in her coloring book that she had started the night before and hadn't finished, and Luke is sitting across from her, getting some last minute studying in before a test he has in biology in his first period class.

Hunter climbs onto the chair next to him.

"Hunter, feed Kyle, please," Beth says as she comes to put the glasses down in front of the three kids and Hunter pulls himself down from his chair and goes into the laundry room where the keep the bag of cat food.

Kyle sits himself down in front of his bowl, his tail swishing back and forth across the floor, waiting as patiently as he can for his breakfast. He hears Beth humming a song to herself as she pulls plates down from the cabinet and then she and Daryl talk with one another in low voices – which is something they do when they don't necessarily want the kids to hear what they're talking about. Kyle blinks up at them, wondering where Hunter is with his food and wondering what Beth is saying that's making Daryl's cheeks turn a faint shade of red.

"… so good," he catches Beth saying.

Daryl grunts something. "Yeah," he agrees and she bumps him playfully with her hip.

She then kisses his cheek as he scoops eggs onto two of plates and he gives her a little smile before she turns and sets the two plates down in front of Abby and Luke and then turns back to the stove to collect the other plate for Hunter. Hunter returns finally with a scoop of cat food and dumps it into the bowl and Kyle begins crunching immediately on the kibble bits, going back to watching the family, Beth whispering something else to Daryl that makes Daryl smile again.

Kyle has come to learn things about his family members and one thing about he knows about Daryl is that the man really only smiles when around his wife or kids. Everyone else, he smirks or keeps his face blanks and for some, he even scowls.

One afternoon, one of the kids' teachers had come to the house to talk about progress and how important a good home environment is for a child to succeed and Kyle sat on the ottoman in front of the chair, blinking at the teacher sitting in the other chair. He then looked to Daryl and Beth who were sitting on the couch across from them. Beth was frowning at the woman and it looked as if a dark storm cloud had settled over Daryl's face. Normally, he would have been blank but to this woman, he couldn't seem to hide it and his eyes were dark and his frown was deep.

Kyle is an outdoor cat and he has walked around this town and has even gone with Daryl to the garage for work a couple of times. He doesn't get why some people don't seem to like him. Kyle thinks he's a pretty good man. The whole Dixon family is. They feed him and give him a warm bed to sleep in at night and there are always plenty of mice in the fields and woods that surround the white farmhouse. And they love him. Even Daryl and Kyle knows he does because Daryl smiles at him, too.

Luke sighs heavily then and pushes the book away from him before dropping his head heavily onto the table. "I hate everything," he mumbles.

Beth ruffles his hair as she passes him and sits down at the table beside Abby with her own plate of eggs. "You'll do fine. I can't tell you how many times I think of the process of Mitosis and Meiosis on a daily basis."

Luke lifts his head and gives her a look and she just smiles.

"Dad?"

He looks to Daryl as Daryl sits down in his chair at the head of the small table. Kyle finishes his breakfast and goes to Abby's feet dangling from her chair. The little girl keeps coloring with one hand and with her other, she slips Kyle a bit toast under the table with her other.

Kyle then crosses to Hunter, who slips him a bit of his scrambled eggs.

"Yep," Daryl answers. "Think about it everyday."

"Why can't I be learning about something useful?" Luke asks.

Kyle goes to Beth next and she leans down, setting her nearly empty glass of milk down on the floor and Kyle happily sticks his face in it, lapping it up.

"Wha's somethin' you think is useful?" Daryl asks him.

Luke shrugs and closes his biology book, finally beginning to eat his eggs. "Don't know. How to build a fire. Purify water. How to write a resume or do taxes or balance a checkbook. Stuff like that."

"We already know how to build a fire," Hunter tells him. "We know how to do a ton of stuff that other kids don't. That's how come Dixons are better than anyone."

"Hunter, don't brag," Beth gently lectures him but doesn't correct his statement.

Abby finishes her picture and carefully rips it from the book before handing it to Daryl, who looks down at the picture of a unicorn in a field of daisies and smiles.

Kyle finishes his milk and crosses the floor to Luke's chair. He rubs against the boy's legs to let him know he's there and as Beth promises Luke that she will teach him all about taxes and bank accounts, Luke reaches down and hands Kyle a bit of bacon.

Kyle had just been a kitten, lost and abandoned, shivering beneath the porch when Hunter found him and brought him inside. And Kyle remembers Beth holding him, drying him off and telling him in a sweet, gentle voice that she would take care of him. She fed him a dish of milk and got him some food and the whole time, she spoke to him in a voice that made him want to fall asleep from the warmth of it.

Kyle listens to Beth talk to her kids like that all the time. And to Daryl, too. She talks to them as if she is constantly singing – her voice in a gentle melody of words rising up and falling down like the sound of the small lake a couple of miles from the house in the woods as its waves lap up against the rocky shore.

Whenever he listens to Beth speak, Kyle always feel safe.

Now, feeling quite stuffed and content, Kyle walks to Daryl's chair and lays down on one of the man's feet, curling himself into a ball and fall asleep. And as the kids clean their breakfast plates and Beth tells them to get ready to school, the three kids get up from the table and take plates to the sink before leaving the kitchen, heading upstairs to get their shoes and book bags. Beth gets up from the table and finishes clearing the rest of the dishes, carrying them to the sink.

"I was thinking of that parmesan crusted chicken for dinner tonight," Beth says.

"Sounds good," Daryl answers, still not moving from his chair. "You need me to get anythin' from the store later?"

"I think we should be good on everything until the weekend. We can make a big trip then," she said and then turns to look at him, still sitting at the table. Kyle stretches his legs out but then flops back down on Daryl's foot. "Don't you have to get to work?" She asks with laughter in her voice.

"Yeah. In a few minutes," Daryl replies. "Don't wanna disturb Kyle jus' yet."

Beth laughs softly and then leans in, kissing Daryl on the cheek before leaving the kitchen, too, and Daryl remains sitting at the table and sips on his coffee and Kyle drifts off to sleep in the quiet room, preferring Daryl's feet to anyone in the family since Daryl's always sure to keep them still for him.

…

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**I found this on my hard drive and I have no idea if I've posted this. I can't find it in any of my other HC stories so here it is (possibly again!) Thank you very much for reading!**


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